The 2012 mobile forecast for higher education highlights the significant role of mobile technology in student, prospect, and alumni engagement, particularly among millennials. Survey responses from over 500 university administrators reveal that a majority see mobile as fundamental in recruitment, retention, and community building, with many institutions planning to enhance mobile strategies in the coming years. The findings indicate that college personnel need to understand differing mobile usage patterns between themselves and their students to ensure effective communication and engagement.

1. 2012 MOBILE FORECAST FOR HIGHER ED
With the rise of smartphones and mobile technology, we are now entering a new frontier
revolutionizing the way we connect. Mobile trends are especially strong for teens and young
adults of the millennial generation who grew up on the Internet and see it as an integral part
of everyday life.
The latest research from Forrester showed 97% of Millenials own a cell-phone and 58%
have a smart-phone. Mobile is becoming an increasingly important component in student,
prospect and alumni engagement.
To help gauge current adoption trends in Higher Ed, Inigral and Stamats gathered survey
responses from over 500 university administrators to produce a 2012 Mobile Forecast and
keep you up to date on where mobile is headed.
WHAT YOU’LL FIND INSIDE:
Mobile and the Student Experience
• 60% of surveyed higher education When will mobile be fundamental
administrators believe mobile is already to how students experience college?
fundamental to how students experience
college 80%
60%
Mobile Strategy Across the Student 60%
Lifecycle
• See how administrators rank the importance 40%
of mobile in each of the following stages:
- Recruitment marketing 20% 17%
15%
- Yield/mix/summer melt 5%
3%
- Retention 0%
Already Within At least 3 or more Not sure
- Community building is the next 12 1-2 years
months years out
- Current student information
- Engagement apps
- Alumni communication
Administrator daily mobile usage
vs. perceived student usage
• Although 16% of administrators plan
social events on their phone, 81% think
their students do this on a daily basis.

2. How important is mobile strategy at each stage of the student lifecycle?
100% Important
80% Somewhat
important
57%
60% 52% 51%
44% 43% Not important
41% 42% 40% 40% 38%
40% 35%
17%
23%
20% 12%
10%
5% 6%
3%
0%
Recruitment Influencing Increasing Strengthening Informational Engaging
marketing yield/mix/ retention/ community accessibility alumni
summer melt first year amongst for enrolled
in admissions experience enrolled
Administrators report mobile being important or somewhat important at the following stages:
• 92% - Recruitment marketing
• 90% - Informational accessibility for enrolled students
• 87% - Strengthening community amongst enrolled
• 83% - Influencing yield/mix/summer melt in admissions
Mobile development and planning has already gone mainstream. The following graph
details how and when institutions plan on using mobile strategies in the recruitment cycle:
When will your institution do the following recruitment activities via mobile?
50% 46%
44%
46%
44%
Already did it
41% 41%
40% 40%
40% 36% 36%
37%
34%
31% 30%
12 months out
28%
30% 27%
23%
20% 21%
20% 18%
17% 1-2 years out
15% 13%
9% 10% 9% 10%
10% 7% 8% 7% 6% 5%
3 or more years
0%
Extend Support Communicate Facilitate Connect Support Provide an Provide an
brand campus with recruits prospective prospective college fairs application information and
awareness visit student students with or high school and payment payment
programs searches counselors, visits system for system for
or lead staff, and/or applicants admits and
generation faculty current students
Key recruitment activities for mobile included extending brand awareness, supporting
campus visit programs, and communicating with recruits. Many of the activities are planned
for 1-2 years out, however a small percentage of early adopters have already implemented
some if not all of these mobile strategies.

3. Administrator daily mobile usage vs. perceived student usage
83%
Check email 94%
Personal mobile
habits
Have SMS 72%
conversations 99% Projected
Use a calendar 63% student mobile
or to-do list 69% habits
Check social 61%
media 99%
Play games or 26%
watch videos 91%
17%
Use a map 43%
Plan social 16%
events 81%
0 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Administrators know that students have different mobile habits than their own. Almost all
students are projected to use SMS, social media, and play games/watch videos daily. It’s
key for college personnel to understand that their use of mobile may be very different from
their students. Be sure to reach out to current students to get feedback before undertaking
any major mobile initiative.
When will your institution do the following in mobile?
100% Already did it
80% 84%
12 months out
60%
1-2 years out
40%
49%
20% 3 or more years
31% 30% 28%
27% 28% 27%
0% 24%
17% 16% 20%
14%
7%
6% 6%
3% 1% 2% 3%
SMS Other SMS Optimize Informational Engagement
emergency communication website app app
notifications for mobile
Although a majority of schools are already using SMS emergency notifications, the big push
in the next two years will be around mobile web optimization, information, and
engagement-focused mobile apps.

4. Institution Technology Adoption Style
50% 49%
Almost half of schools see
technology as a strategic opportunity
40%
and are open to new products.
32%
30%
However, a similar percentage
prefer to have strong support
20%
15% references or to wait for technology
to become established standards.
10%
5% These trends show a clear push
towards increased adoption and
0%
We like being first We see emerging We prefer We wait for anticipation of mobile products in
and don’t mind technology as a technology with technologies that
early versions strategic opportunity strong references are established the years to come.
and are open to new and support standards
products
What departments are most involved in mobile decisions?
Marketing &
Communications
IT
Admissions
Student Affairs
Alumni
Development
Academics
Other
0 100 200 300 400
Marketing & Communications, IT, and Admissions departments are most involved in mobile
decisions. However, it’s important to note that these audiences also make up the largest
percentages of respondents.

5. RESPONDENTS BY DEPARTMENT AND
INSTITUTIONAL TYPE:
Respondents included 507 higher education professionals from across the country working
primarily in Marketing/Communications departments (43%) and Admissions departments (38%).
The survey was distributed through email and social media channels using a convenience,
non-probability sampling technique, therefore results may not be representative.
What office or department do you work for?
Alumni
Development (1%)
Marketing & Communications
43% IT (1%)
Academics
4%
Student Affairs
4%
9% Other
Admissions
38%
Institution Type
Private Non-Profit 4-year+
51%
Private For-Profit 4-year+
3%
Community College
9%
5% Other
Public 4-year+
31%

6. Undergraduate Student Population
20,000 and above Under 1,000
14% 12%
10,000 - 19,999 13%
45% 1,000 - 4,999
5,000 - 9,999 16%
This survey was a collaboration between:
Inigral is the creator of the Schools App, a private Facebook community designed to
improve enrollment and retention at colleges and universities. We help schools build
community and improve student engagement with the world's most popular social network.
Stamats is an integrated marketing and communications company that provides strategic
and creative services for higher education admissions and advancement offices. We help
colleges and universities turn their marketing goals into realities.
Please contact Rose Broome (rose@inigral.com) or Sabra Fiala (sabra.fiala@stamats.com)
with questions or comments.